DARDANELLE — After losing a board member earlier this month, the Dardanelle School Board is looking to fill its Zone 2 vacancy for the next three months until election season.

The vacancy, left open after former board member Keith Stokes resigned, is open to any registered voter living in Zone 2 in Dardanelle. Applicants will be reviewed and one will be appointed to serve on the board for the remaining three months of Stokes’ term before the September school board election.

All school board seats will be up for election in September due to rezoning requirements that resulted from the 2010 U.S. Census, Dardanelle Superintendent John Thompson said.

Stokes served on the Dardanelle School Board for almost eight years before resigning at a May 21 board meeting.

“There were a lot of rewarding and very challenging experiences,” Stokes said. “Any time you’re dealing with kids, you see a lot of success stories — it’s always very rewarding.”

Stokes, who previously indicated he was not going to run for re-election in September, said he considered stepping down in September due to an increased workload outside of his school board responsibilities, but decided to stick with it through until May so he could be a bigger part of his daughter’s graduation on May 20.

“I had a co-worker retire in April and I was going to resign then, but my daughter really wanted me to hand her her diploma, so I stayed on until May so I could do that,” he said.

While Stokes’ resignation allowed for the hiring of his daughter-in-law at one of the schools, he said it was not a reason for his departure from the board. Thompson said Lori Stokes — a Dover teacher who was hired to teach fourth grade in Dardanelle — was one of 15 candidates interviewed out of a group of 58 applicants, and the principal and teacher who conducted the interviews recommended her to Thompson.

“The principal made the recommendation to me and I took it to the board,” Thompson said. “It was legal and above board.”

To express intent to fill the Zone 2 school board vacancy, contact Thompson’s office at (479) 229-4111 or visit the office at 209 Cedar St. in Dardanelle.